Game Description:It’s been two years since Jackie Estacado, now the Don of the Franchetti crime family, used The Darkness to kill the men responsible for his girlfriend’s murder. He’s been unable to shake the memory of Jenny’s death since bottling up his supernatural power, and now The Darkness wants out. A sudden, unprovoked attack on Jackie’s life heralds the start of a full-scale mob war, which has clearly been orchestrated by some outside force. The botched attempt opens the door for The Darkness to reemerge, and sets Jackie on a journey to hell and worse, as he unravels the mystery behind the attack and the motivations of The Darkness itself.

The Darkness 2 Review

The Darkness 2 is a smart, beautiful, exhilarating slice of horror-action mayhem with combat, art direction, and acting being noticeably enhanced since its predecessor. A messier storyline and unnecessary boss fights work against it, but it still stands out as an extraordinarily inspired shooter.

The Pros

Balanced, flexible combat

Gorgeous graphic novel aesthetic

Great dialogue and acting

Intriguing story. . .until the end

The Cons

Story eventually loses its way

Poor boss fights

Weak multiplayer

The Darkness 2 Review:

There's a scene in 2007's The Darkness where mopey mafioso Jackie Estacado uses the demonic tentacles that have possessed him to reign havoc in his vile uncle Paulie's mansion. Henchmen run and panic as Jackie murders a group of goons in one fell swoop, tosses a guy around like a ragdoll, and creates black holes to absorb his opposition. It was a mesmerizing scene and a fitting climax for a bitter tale of loss and revenge, except there was one problem: it wasn't interactive.

Certain moves like the horizontal tentacle swipe weren't even in the game, and actually playing as Jackie was much slower and less empowering than this cutscene made it out to be. As such, it highlighted what the game should have been all along. Now, nearly half a decade later, development duties have shifted from Starbreeze Studios (The Chronicles of Riddick) to Digital Extremes (Dark Sector) and the potential we saw is finally realized in this hyper-violent, sophisticated sequel.

Skills for Kills

TheDarkness 2 takes place a couple years after the events of the first game. Jackie has risen to become a mafia don, but his life of hedonism is hollow, as his beloved Jenny's still dead. It's not all doom-and-gloom though. Jackie has a new found purpose looking after his aunt Sarah along with his wonderfully endearing mob empire. After a hit on an Italian restaurant leaves many of his men dead, Jackie succumbs to the Darkness yet again as he investigates his mysterious assailants.

Perhaps the biggest improvement this sequel makes is its approach to combat. First off, you no longer move like a snail. More importantly, the Darkness techniques are integrated far more efficiently than in its predecessor. Your left tentacle grabs items and stunned enemies, while the right can swipe for a devastating melee attack. Additionally, you have two Darkness powers. One lets loose a swarm of insects ala the wasp plasmid in Bioshock, while the other temporarily boosts your guns' power as they fire off rounds of magical ammo. Both abilities are on a cool-down timer, so they must be used sparingly. There's also an upgrade tree with options for greater health regeneration, deadlier attacks, and the cathartic black hole launching from the first game.

In an inspired choice, how you eliminate enemies dictates what you get out of it. Taking a page from Bulletstorm, every kill grants experience points. Simply gunning a foe down will work, but rewards fewer points. A headshot is better, but dangling an goon by their ankle and ripping their skull out from their anus is best. A clever execution system adds even more depth. Once an enemy's been stunned or injured their heart will be shown like an x-ray. This means they're vulnerable for a grab with ol' lefty and you're given a choice how to execute them. Do you want to rip their heart out and gain health, or consume their cadaver to manifest a shield, more ammo, or a quicker recharge rate on your Darkness powers? Each type of execution comes with their own set of animations based on where you grab an enemy so you won't have to wait through the same ones ad infinitum.

Besides combat, The Darkness 2 is a marked improvement over its predecessor visually. Hand-drawn, cel-shaded textures make the whole thing look like a comic book with subtle use of cross-hatching and thick black lines. This is a vastly more colorful game, where the night sky is always a bold deep blue and a lavish underground brothel is bathed in red curtains. It's a testament to the art direction that a gritty game about darkness contains so few grays and browns.

Despite The Darkness 2's penchant for ultra-violence, this is a very narrative-heavy game with lengthy sequence where you do nothing but talk to people. There's loads of extra dialogue for patient players who eavesdrop on NPC's conversations, and optional exchanges can go on for some time. The Darkness was already memorable for its intimate character moments, and The Darkness 2 improves on this rock-solid foundation with a well developed cast, beautifully staged setpieces, and some of best voice-acting in gaming. Despite the grim subject matter The Darkness 2 has a lot of heart. And not just the ones your tentacles feast off of.

The Darkness 2 also surpasses its predecessor is in its otherworldly episodes. In the first The Darkness, Jackie's trips to the underworld were portrayed as a crimson wasteland modeled after a hellish vision of World War I. This time around he finds himself a patient in a mental ward that's a cross between One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Wizard of Oz, where characters from the rest of the game reappear in vastly different roles. Here Jackie is told he's delusional and was never a mob boss (let alone one possessed by a demon). In a brilliant ironic twist, the asylum is the brightest environment in the game. Digital Extremes wisely realizes that fire and brimstone are too fantastical to summon real feelings of dread, but the shockingly earnest hospital scenes hit much closer to home, creating a far more believable -- and horrifying -- Kafka-esque nightmare.

While individual scenes sparkle, the overall plot is murkier than the last game's. Rather than an emotionally charged revenge fantasy, The Darkness 2 follows the series' supernatural elements further down the rabbit hole. The main villain and his Illuminati-esque followers are ultimately forgettable, and the final chapter is more confusing and silly than everything leading up to it.

For a game with such a strong narrative pull it's a shame The Darkness 2 occasionally lets its more "gamey" elements get in the way. Each level has a collectible relic or two to find that grant a big XP boost, but seeking them out flies in the face of the otherwise breakneck momentum the story encourages. Also, the addition of boss fights ultimately does not work and feels ungracefully tacked on.

This is the case with multiplayer as well. While the co-op campaign loosely ties into the main story, the writing is several leagues worse where you play as one of four outlandish stereotypes (drunk Scottish guy, solemn samurai, witch doctor, etc.) who have weapons infused with the Darkness. Each one plays like a scaled down version of Jackie with only a fraction of his powers and finishing moves. Watching the same one or two execution animations per character gets old really fast. While a serviceable Darkness-based take on a traditional co-op template, it pales in comparison to the main game.

We Are Eternal

Despite the anticlimactic ending, shoddy boss fights, and lackluster multiplayer, The Darkness 2 is an extremely impressive game. It oozes style, packs an emotional punch, and manages to be effectively balance bombastic violence with understated character development, ensuring that when the Darkness is unleashed you care. Just as Jackie finds himself a puppet of the Darkness's will, I found myself unable to give up its seductive allure when the end credits rolled after a scant nine hours. Instead, I started straight away on new game.

Editor's Note: The Darkness 2 was reviewed using an Xbox 360 copy of the game. If further investigation reveals any differences in the PC and/or PS3 copy of the game, this review will be updated to reflect those differences.

Comments are Closed

I love the first The Darkness. I hope this one is going to be fun to play. so far on xbox.com forms not many people are happy with the game play.but thats just options :) some people didnt like the game outfit and I loved it lol.....anyway.umm we will see how it goes.

When will developers learn that not all games need boss fights?n Like the new Deus ex, would've been a better game without them in my opinion. Though, flinging printers at that one guy until he dies WAS pretty funny...

it is somewhat funny That Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning got a 2.5/5, but the average user rating is about 4/5.... Now here it is almost backwards, Darkness 2 got a 4/5 but the average user rating is a 2.6/5, this just simply goes to show that the reviewers at G4 are being honest about the way THEY feel about certain games rather than take a step back and and see the game as a whole. i have both these game, each one has their flaws but you can please everyone right? I just think that G4 really needs to take the blinders off and look at the big picture, and also take into consideration what their viewers think about games as well.

Minor four hours into the game, I'm actually really enjoying it. I was a huge fan of the first, and the steps they've taken in it's sequel are fantastic. I'm really hoping the ending isn't as bad as they say though, because I've never been a fan of poor endings haha

I'm not complaining but just taking what I've seen and comparing, but it seems like their cons are always opposite of others. Like this one, many have liked the ending but thought it started slow and thought the multiplayer was fun since your playing with friends or someone else and it's also part of the story line. Sure it's going to be like COD where you put over 30 hrs into it but something that can be enjoyable for several hours with friends. This isn't a bad review by all means just not what I've seen from others. Games like this I wouldn't take their opinion to heavily, it's the bigger titles that they put their work into especially anything from Rockstar. That seems to be their favorite company.

You know...you guys at X-play are the ones that gave the original Darkness a 2 out of 5 on which was the most horrendous thing I've ever heard!

Who ever that "reviewer" was should be fired for given a false representation of the actual game and must have made the score based on some biased personal opinion because it was totally unjust. Heck! That game still stands up to most of the crap that has been release to the public since!

On technical merit alone, the Darkness was a 2. Add in the playability and the story along with the presentation...easy...EASY 4 our of 5. I'm not reading this review...I'll wait till I see this review on X-play...try to get this one right!